Presence
by Amber Entropy
Summary: We all get that feeling. You know, like you're alone and there's nothing or no one to guide you. You're lost in a sea of despair and you're drowning in your own sorrows. But wherever there's darkness and ocean, there is light and land... Even if you find it in the most unexpected person. NO PAIRING. Short story. COMPLETE.


Presence

It was so silent. So peaceful. Nothing in the world could shatter this rare blissful moment. She sat alone, on a hill overlooking the sleeping village that of which her heart belonged. Never did she belong in the castle. Never was she _welcome_ in the castle, and yet she slept and ate and spent her time talking formally with Meta-Knight. But there were days that she felt everyone around her was pushing her away. It was unintentional, but noticeable, even for Tiff.

Loneliness was her only companion. No one in this world could relate to her supreme intelligence, or even shared the same interests. She found comfort only in the shadow of herself—something that, given some thought, sounded a little insane. But some nights, she was restless. She tossed and turned and cried, drowning in a sea of depression and compulsive darkness. Everyday became a routine. Wakeup, eat, read, eat again, sleep. Hours would go by, and Tiff would wake again from her slumber once more—in the middle of the night.

But from her bedside window, she would watch the crisp moonlight. The sky was blanketed in a quilt of blue adorned by starry milk speckles. Occasionally, she would glimpse a shooting star or gaze her eyes upon the most graceful of meteor showers. She wanted to touch them—be close to them. In anyway she could, that is.

Then, one day, she came to the conclusion that she would venture out there and watch the stars fall away from view and drown into the horizon.

But now she was, closer than ever to the one thing in her life that delighted her... and yet, never had she felt so... sad. It was as though as hard as Tiffany tried to get close to the delightful stars and moon, it would always be a distance apart. They would always be separated. Always be alone. _She_ would be alone.

Somehow, it made her want to crawl into her very own soul and shiver violently.

Somehow, it made her want to cry.

But Tiff was strong. She would hold on with every fibre in her body, every string in her soul. She forced herself to giggle, shake her head. Tell herself that everything was just a lie—a fake—an illusion. Everything she did, she still felt that chilly emptiness that made her lose faith in herself. But she had to try. _Don't be stupid. I'm not alone. I've got Kirby, Tuff, and the rest of the Cappies! I'm not alone!_ She tried to keep laughing. She laughed when the tears stung her eyes. She laughed even as they tore down her cheeks. She laughed when the depression fell in again.

But when the images of all her companions flashed in her mind's eye, her heart broke in two.

No more laughing. No more denial.

Oh God, why couldn't she be like everyone else? Why couldn't she be dense like all the other children her age? Why couldn't she live in the village? Why couldn't she make friends? Why? Why? Why?!

Kirby couldn't even _talk_. Tuff was too different. Too bold. And the Cappies? It was a miracle they knew how to dress themselves! Escargoon despised her, and Dedede wanted to kick her out... Tiff continued to whimper, laying in the cool earth as the moon bathed her in its serenading glow. _No one_ understood her. Sure, her parents loved and adored both their children, but they too lacked sufficient knowledge—therefore lacking empathy in Tiff's place.

Even in the cool midnight, the child curled into a ball and gazed at the sea of stars with her tear-stained eyes. "This world is so messed up."

"You can say that again." a chilling voice, followed by a _shing _of metal and a hard, long sword pointing towards her, sneered at her. Tiffany froze in her spot, heart coming to a stop with fear. But the shadow that fell over her in the moonlight was unidentified. "Sit up right now." It said. Tiff complied, shaking harder than a leaf as she fiddled with her blond hair—only for the silhouetted stranger to slap her hands away and press their own against her mouth, pinching her cheekbones as they pressed their nails into her flesh. She wriggled in agony, only to have her hands bound.

She gazed up at them with terror, even when they slid their hand away from her mouth. It was a Cappy, definitely a Cappy. There was no doubt about the shape and size of it, but the voice didn't belong to anyone in that village. "What do you want with me?" she found her voice in a matter of seconds, forcing herself to glare at them angrily and replace her look of fear. But deep inside, she was trembling.

The silhouette, still handling their weapon threateningly towards her, chuckled. "I want you to scream—"

_Whump!_

From the second they were standing over her, they collapsed like dead weight to the ground beside her, momentarily unconscious. And another shadow stood above, this time larger—not a Cappy at all.

And this time, she realized with horror, Tiff _could_ recognize their voice.

"Neva in my whole life have ah got to try that on a _real_ crook!" He chuckled to himself, obviously pleased. He was reeling a ridiculously huge hammer in his hands. Suddenly, with an inward groan of embarrassment, she wished that she were back in bed. Said culprit was stirring, now with a bump sprouting from the top of his head as he rolled into the moonlight—only to have it blocked by a snarling Dedede.

"Who are _you?_" the criminal snorted angrily, struggling to sit up. The penguin's foot slammed down on the Cappy, preventing him from retrieving his weapon as Triple D rose his hammer higher into the air threateningly.

"If ah eva see yo' ace around 'ere again, you gon'a have mo' than just a bump on th' head!" The penguin snarled. Tiff recoiled with an unexpected fear to hear the aggression in Dedede's tone. She knew him all her life, of course—but _never_ had he been so... murderous? Vicious?

... Protective?

The Cappy shrank back, staggering as he rose to his feet and bolted off, vanishing from sight, leaving Tiff alone with a _very_ angry bird. And against all odds, her pursed lips parted to hoarsely whisper, "Thanks." Then she forced a shaky smile to lighten the mood. She'd never dreamed of the day she'd be grateful to this pompous loser excuse for a bird, nor the other way around. But when Dedede glanced at her, there was no warmth in his eyes. Only two icy shards of anger. And it was then it occurred to her—he was not angry at the criminal; he was angry at _her_. But for what? What had _Tiff_ done?

As Dedede treated her with the cold shoulder, he roughly unbound her wrists and gave her a shove to suggest that a smile was not going to make things better. The child rubbed her wrists anxiously and stayed as a heap of yellow on the ground, recoiling at his pissed off behaviour. Then he spoke. "Yer such an airhead! Only 'n idiot woulda come ou' here at night!" his harsh words triggered her inner defiance and hatred, causing Tiff to stubbornly cross her arms.

"Look who's talking!" she snorted. "You're being _such_ a hypocrite. And where's your little slave?"

He ignored her batters, taking her by surprise, and instead lowered his voice in a dangerously quiet tone. "At least ah _have_ someone 'o's willin' to follow me around." he hissed at her.

Hit. A. Nerve.

She grit her teeth in the beginnings of a snarl. "I—I—" but no words escaped her mouth. Nothing made sense anymore; her brain just seemed to melt under his withering gaze. Her jaws quivered, as if trying to fight the urge to crumble into dust, but it was too late. Her knees buckled—triggering everything at once as Tiff stifled a sob and hid her face. He was right. He was absolutely right. It stung, it hurt so much, but even the stupidest person in Cappy town could see it. She was alone.

Minutes passed, and both held up their end of the silence—broken by her muffled sobbing, of course. She wondered if he'd left without remarking on her weak, feminine side. But that was too good to be true. His derisive commenting was never dismissed. She waited for it, waited to endure the verbal abuse that she had grown so used to by living at the manor.

But it never came. After the longest of times, Dedede's glare on her softened with pity. "Fumu..." it was the first time he'd seen the girl cry. And it sure wasn't going to be the last. Hesitantly, his hand reached out and awkwardly settled on her shoulder. "Um... Ah din't mean nothin'..." he explained with a wince. Tiffany shook his hand away.

"No, you're more than right." She sobbed. And there was nothing more to say.

For him, there was, and with a sudden inspiration Dedede gently lifted her into his arms and sat down. Tiff gawked up at him with astonishment as he chuckled, the monarch cloak embracing him slowly drawn from around his shoulders and shared between the two of them.

He rocked her softly, humming a familiar tune that Tiff had overheard when he had developed the park before the alleged world's end. Her heart was pounding urgently, bones stiff with discomfort and confusion. This wasn't like him at all—nor herself, for that matter! _What's the matter with you? _Tiff demanded to herself. _Get away! _But her legs, her arms... they were wax. The child couldn't move no matter how hard she tried to make them. And in frustration, she balled her fists and hid her face in the bird's belly.

She could see nothing but the water forming in her eyes in larger quantity each time—but his feathery hands held the back of her blond head and rubbed gruffly. "Do ya know why ya were nicknamed Fumu?" he asked softly, his cerulean feathers glinting in the light. When she failed to respond, he tilted her chin up to face him and grinned. "Or where th' teddy bear ya had came from?" Dedede pressed mischievously. Again, she refused to answer—because she had no answer.

"It's 'cause, believe it o' not, when ya was little..." his eyes met her bleak, dull green and Dedede, for the first time ever, gave a smile full of warmth. "Ah found a friend in ya."

Memories flashed in her mind's eye, memories of running around the fortress and chasing after an imaginary friend—which allegedly was no imaginary friend at all.

So for the first time in a long while, Tiff slowly rose from his arms and embraced him.

He was startled at first, not knowing what to do at all as the flustered penguin winced. He was not really one for hugs—not in the least. But the longer her tiny arms stayed coiled around his neck, the more comfortable he felt just sinking into her embrace. His fingers gently edged around her waist as he pulled the child closer, into the curve of his chest, cupping the back of her blond head. And her tiny body shook violently, hacking with whimpers Dedede guessed she hadn't shared in a long time. His trembling hands tore each other's mittens off and ran through her hair soothingly.

"Betcha wished ya had someone t' hol' onto." He murmured into her ear. "Oh, Tiffany, ah know 'ow 'ard it can get..." God, he wished someone had done this for him when he was little. No, a little orphan like himself hadn't gotten the maternal affection he'd needed. Dedede figured once he had raised into power, he would get some sort of attention—a loving amour from the low life Cappies. Boy, he was in for a real surprise. What went around came around. But maybe he could do this over. Make things right.

Naaaaaaaaaah!

Only for Tiffany.

"Let's get ya 'ome in bed, now. 'Kay?" When her legs were wax, he easily lifted her up against his chest and let one arm sit beneath her to support her weight. Tiff hesitantly placed her sleepy head over his shoulder, still sharing the cloak that draped across both their shoulders, even as her eyes slowly began to close. The last thing she'd heard before losing consciousness was a distinct heartbeat, too heavy to be her own.

But the last thing she thought was something different.

_Maybe I'm not alone._


End file.
